Agree Bookstart is great - but makes me angry how stingy things have become

53 replies

Armo24 · 04/12/2025 23:01

Came across this sweet and quietly political piece about Bookstart and remembered how it used to be more generous than it is now even. Is it a sign of how we just come to expect less over the years? Isn't that quite sad?

What baby books taught me about the British state

The Bookstart scheme, which gives books to newborns, is a remnant from a more beneficent political era

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/society/2025/12/what-baby-books-taught-me-about-the-british-state

OP posts:

Staybymw · 05/12/2025 06:12

When I had my first baby back in 2009, I got a baby book from the GP. Thick book from pregnancy up until newborn stage. I read it back to front. I was a teen mum and it really helped me.

Gave birth last year and none of that stuff exists anymore. Everything is online they said But it is not the same

MyOtherProfile · 05/12/2025 06:10

It is sad that the children only get one lot now, not the two that they used to, but it's great they still get that, given the terrible cuts to anything for children under the Tory government. I'm just delighted we still get to give one pack to our children.

We still have the books my children were given and they're adults now. Wonderful scheme.

VashtaNerada · 05/12/2025 03:43

When I think back to the world my eldest DC (17) was born into, it was so much better than things are now. Excellent support via Sure Start, money from the government to start a Child Trust Fund, and loads of free books right up until she started school from Bookstart. I’d hoped our current government would be bringing that culture back but I’m not sure they have.

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